In another project for one of my engineering classes I was paired with a classmate to design a device that would be useful for people with arthritis in their day to day lives. My project partner and I decided to focus on the cellphone. After reading testimonials and doing some research we realized that phone cases and holding a phone for an extended period of time was a difficulty for many people with joint problems. After scouring the market we discovered that there was a strong lack of cases that are designed to help people with joint problems both to allow them to comfortably hold a phone and prevent unintended dropping. As shown below, we brainstormed a variety of designs before finally settling on and dirty-prototyping the one shown in color below. After some testing for general fit and comfort, we presented this for our final project. This project taught me to look for problems in unexpected places. We decided early on that we needed to find a niche but common problem. It took more time and effort but we finally settled on phones rather than something more unusual but fixable. I will take the brainstorming goals from this project and learn to apply some of those concepts to future projects. This project really taught me the value of: sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. The project's reliance on brainstorming helped me to further my communication skills in a group setting especially in regards to conveying ideas in a group setting.
